Silver Linings
by Orennjii
Summary: Sora just wanted a fresh start but it all comes crashing down when his past comes back to haunt him. [Riku x Sora x Roxas] Trigger Warning: Substance abuse & Physical abuse. Read with caution. Rating is subject to change.
1. Prologue

Sora watched through the window, his baby blue eyes filled with the gnawing feeling of nervousness as the train made its way closer and closer towards Twilight Town. The butterflies in his stomach fluttered as he felt the train slow down and sighed. Taking his luggage and slipping on his backpack, he stood in front of the door, feeling the train jerk slightly before the doors opened.

Sora stepped off of the train onto the station's concrete flooring, his hands gripping tightly on the handles of his luggage as it rolled behind him. His eyes darted towards the bright green 'exit' sign, following the arrows. He made his way out of the train station, shielding his eyes as the rays of the sunset.

" _Are you sure about this?"_

 _Sora looked at his mother, her braids cascading down her shoulders and her soft, slender fingers on top of his. "I think it'll be a fresh start." He paused. "It'll be good for me."_

" _I know but I don't want you to get worse again," His mother explained. "Your father and I are just worried."_

" _I won't. I got help just like you asked and I'm a lot better now but I don't want to stay here and be reminded everyday of what happened. Please trust me. I need this." She sighed, placing a kiss on her son's forehead._

" _Okay, If you think that it will be best for you, then you can go."_

"Sora!" He yelped in surprise as he was forced into a bear hug by his older brother, Vanitas. They've always been close but since Vanitas moved to Twilight Town for college, it's been hard keeping in touch.

"I'm guessing you missed me?" Sora chuckled, patting his brother on the back. Vanitas let go, his hands firmly placed on his shoulders.

"Of course," Vanitas replied. "I can't believe mom and dad actually agreed to let you stay with me."

"My puppy eyes can be very persuasive," Sora joked, making Vanitas chuckle.

"Always has been." Vanitas took his luggage from his hands. "Come on, my place isn't far."

* * *

Sorry for the short prologue! The story will pick up in the next chapter :]


	2. Chapter 1

"I can't believe summer vacation is over," Hayner whined, his feet propped up against his desk and his arms behind his head.

"At least we got to go to the beach," Olette said, her arm propped on her desk to support her head. "I bet Pence ended up taking some nice photos."

"Yeah, if he'd let us actually see it," Roxas said, turning around only to be met face to face with Hayner's feet. "Dude!" He yelled, aggressively shoving Hayner's feet off the desk. "It sucks sitting in front of you." The group laughed with the exception of Roxas, Hayner and Pence high-fiving each other.

"I want the album to be perfect," Pence explained. "Did you guys hear we have a new kid?"

"What's the big deal?" Hayner yawned. "I feel bad for whoever even wants to live in this boring town."

"I heard some people on the blitzball team say that it's Vanitas's younger brother," Pence said, leaning back against his chair.

"No way," Olette gasped. " _The_ Vanitas?"

"You'd think two years after graduating that people would have forgotten about him already," Hayner groaned.

"People in a town as small as this don't just forget someone like Vanitas," Roxas said. "He had a pretty big reputation."

They turned their attention towards the door, their homeroom teacher entering and the whole class shuffled to their seats. "I hope you all had a wonderful vacation," she greeted. "Before I start class, I want to introduce you all to our new student." The class's heads turned towards the door, a mess of spiky hair entering the room. "This is Sora, and he'll be joining you from now on. He's come all the way from Hollow Bastion."

Sora flashed a smiled, "Nice to meet everyone." The whole class started a frenzy of whispers. Mostly talking about how cute the new kid was.

"Yup, he's Vanitas's brother alright," Hayner sighed in defeat. "Damn it, I was hoping he came out ugly." Olette took her notebook and used it to smack Hayner's knees. "Ow! What? I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one thinking that."

"The resemblance is uncanny, that's for sure," Roxas murmured.

"Hey, doesn't your brother still hang out with Vanitas?" Pence asked.

Roxas turned to look at Pence. "Uh...not as much since they graduated. Why?"

"You should ask him to hang out with us," Olette chimed in.

"Yeah. Besides, if he really is Vanitas's younger brother, I can rub it in Tidus's face," Hayner said. The whole group groaned in annoyance.

"Okay, first of all. We should be friends with him because we want to." Olette lectured. "And second of all, I can't believe you're still not over that!"

"It's been two years dude," Roxas complained. "Let it go."

"No, I will not let it go," Hayner said, his eyebrows scrunching and a pout forming on his lips. "He beat me at the Struggle tournament once and he thinks he's better than me."

"Um, that's _your_ fault that you lost. You insisted on going to the tournament even if you were sick." Pence scolded, sighing.

"At least you learned your lesson," Roxas consoled.

"Yeah, _after_ he vomited on Tidus's shoes." Pence rolled his eyes.

Hayner glared at them, crossing his arms. "Okay, okay. Weren't we talking about the new kid just a few seconds ago? Let's go back to that."

"Anyways, you should go talk to him, Roxas," Olette encouraged. "He probably doesn't know anyone. He'd appreciate it."

"Why me?"

"Well, your brother and his brother used to be close friends." Olette paused. "You two automatically have something in common."

Roxas sighed in defeat. "Fine. I'll talk to him after class."

"Okay, class. Welcome to Literature. As most of you know, I'm Mrs. Belle." Belle walked around the classroom, hanging out the course syllabus. "For the first few weeks, we'll be looking at the works of shakespeare. Isn't that exciting?" The class groaned in response.

The class dragged on, at least in Roxas's mind. He didn't mind it but it wasn't his first choice. The only reason he picked it was because his friends decided it was a class they should take together. After the bell rang, he sighed in relief. Olette poked him with her pencil, signalling him to talk to Sora, who was busy packing up his stuff. He stood up and walked over to Sora, clearing his throat. "Uh...hi, I'm Roxas."

"Sora," he replied, flashing a smile. Roxas blushed. He never knew a guy's voice could sounds so sweet. God, he was so fucking gay.

"So, uhh...Sora...My friends and I were wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with us later. Or not. I mean you don't have to if you don't want to." If Sora wasn't in front of him, he would have slapped himself on the face.

Sora tilted his head, blinking a couple of times before chuckling. "Yeah, sure," he said. "I would love to. Um, the thing is...I haven't actually gotten the chance to tour the school so I don't know where anything is."

"That's okay!" he said. "Since we have a 15 minute break before the next class, I can bring you to your next class and show you around during lunch."

"That would actually be amazing," Sora thanked. "I was worried I was going to be late to all my classes."

Roxas chuckled. "Hey, it's okay. I get it. What's your schedule look like?"

Sora took out a piece of paper from the back pocket of his pants.. "Um, I have History next, then Gym and Biology." He read.

"History with Eraqus?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah! How'd you know?"

"I'm in the same class. Let me just grab my stuff and we can head out." Sora nodded, grabbing his stuff and slinging his backpack on his shoulder.

"Sooooo...I heard the new kid's pretty cute" Riku and Wakka looked over at Tidus, staring at him in disbelief. They stood by Riku's locker during breaks as it was the one closest to their next class."What?" Tidus asked.

"You have a girlfriend, doofus," Wakka scolded. "Remember Yuna? The girl that you spent ages trying to confess and when you finally did, you ended up tripping over a trash can and got a concussion?"

"I know that," Tidus retorted. "Thanks for bringing up that painful... _painful_ memory by the way. But I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about Riku."

"Excuse me?" Riku asked. Tidus patted his back, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

"You can't play the single brooding hunk of the blitzball team forever, right, Wakka?"

"He has a point," Wakka agreed. At that moment, Kairi and Selphie made their way towards them.

"What are you girls gossiping about?" Kairi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We're trying to set up Riku with the new kid," Tidus explained nonchalantly, making Kairi and Selphie chuckle giggle.

"You'll just scare him off," Selphie laughed. "Maybe if you smiled a little bit more, you wouldn't look so intimidating." Wakka and Tidus snickered, earning a punch on the arm by Riku.

"Why don't you ask him if he wants to hang out with us at the mall later?" Kairi asked. "He's new and he doesn't know anyone. Besides from what I hear, he's quite the looker. He might give you a run for your money, Riku."

"That's what _I_ said!" Tidus exclaimed.

Riku sighed, " _If_ I see him and ask him, will you guys shut up?"

" _I_ will, but I don't know about Tidus," Wakka smirked. "The kid never keeps his mouth shut." Tidus, in the process of drinking from his water bottle, glared at Wakka.

"I wish I had a class with him," Selphie whined. "Word is going around that he's the younger brother of Vanitas.". Tidus choked on his sandwich, Wakka violently patting his back.

"No fucking way!" He yelled, standing from his seat and slamming his palms against the table.. Everyone around them turned their heads, looking curiously at Tidus. He laughed nervously, slowly sitting back down. "Nothing to see here, folks."

"Nice save," Kairi said, rolling her eyes.

"Duuuuuuuude, his brother's a legend!" Tidus whispered harshly, his eyes widened as if it was ready to bulge out of its sockets.

"Yeah, no kidding." Wakka chuckled. "Tidus and I saw him at the grocery store one time and he almost pissed his pants."

Tidus elbowed him on the chest, "Shut the fuck up, dude."

Riku sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "You're embarrassing."

* * *

I tried to make up the last chapter by making thing a "long" one v-v Pretty sure I failed. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to leave a review :D


	3. Chapter 2

"Eraqus is a bit of a bore but he means well," Roxas explained, grabbing a seat by the window. Sora took the desk in front of him, turning his body and leaning on Roxas's desk. "He also doesn't accept late homework even if you're on your deathbed."

"Learned from experience?" Sora chuckled.

"Unfortunately," Roxas sighed. "He said kidney stones weren't an excuse to miss homework since us 'youngins' had all the electronic devices we needed to take to the hospital and do our homework."

"Ouch." They both laughed, but was cut short when a high pitched schriek caught their attention. They look over at the door to see two girls, one of them with her hands over her mouth.

She nudged her friend, "Kairi, that's him!" The red headed girl laughed nervously, pushing the other to their seats across the room.

Sora raised an eyebrow and looked over at Roxas, "Do people who move here usually get this much attention?"

"Sort of," Roxas laughed, nervously. "I think it's worse because there's rumours floating around that you're Vanitas's brother."

"Well, he is," Sora blinked, a perplexed look on his face. "Why is it such a big deal?"

"He was the most popular kid in the school - The whole town even."

"Uh, are we talking about the same person?" Sora looked at Roxas as if he grew two heads. "Black, spiky hair? Wears yellow contacts?"

"He wears coloured contacts?"

"Yeah, he thinks it makes him look edgy."

"Huh," Roxas paused. "Anyway, he was assigned captain of the blitzball team in the middle of his first year, which is unheard of. After he became captain, he pretty much became famous. Plus, I heard he threw awesome parties."

"You never went?"

"More like I was never invited and I'm not very good at parties," He explained, shaking his head. It's not that he didn't like going to parties. He just preferred doing other things like stay at home...and sleep.

"I understand," Sora smiled. "Still, I can't believe Vani was actually popular. We're talking about a guy who dabs to the sound of the microwave beeping."

Roxas scrunched his face in disbelief, "Gross."

"He really is."

Eraqus entered the classroom, making the classroom go quiet. "Welcome to History," he greeted, setting down a pile of papers on his table. Roxas knew he was supposed to pay attention but he couldn't stop staring at the back of Sora's head. There were a million thoughts running through his head. Questions like 'is his hair naturally spiky?', 'If not, what kind of hair products does he use?' or maybe 'Is he single?'. Not that Roxas would ever ask unless Sora brought it up, of course.

"Roxas?" Roxas blinked in confusion. Sora looked at him with worry, waving a hand in front of his face. "The bell rang 5 minutes ago."

It was clear that Roxas had to work on his staring problems.

"Sorry," he apologized. "Let's go." They packed up their things and made their way towards the courtyard. Once they got near to one of the picnic tables, Olette and Pence waved at them.

"Guys, over here!" Olette called. They took their spots on the seat and took out their lunches.

"Sora, meet my friends. That's Olette," Roxas introduced.

"Hey, Sora," Olette greeted.

"Pence,"

"Hey," Pence said, shaking Sora's hand.

"And that's Hayner."

"Sup?"

"Nice to meet you all," Sora greeted, flashing a smile. "I hope I'm not intruding."

"No, not at all," Olette replied. "We were the ones that asked Roxas to talk to you."

"We figured it probably felt weird moving here and trying to make new friends," Pence smiled, taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"Uh, yeah, it really is," Sora chuckled nervously. "I appreciate it a lot."

"So, Sora, let's get down to business." Hayner cleared his throat, moving his face closer to Sora and raising an eyebrow. "Are the rumours true?"

"Dude!" Roxas cried, shoving Hayner.

"What?" Hayner whined. "I'm curious!"

Sora laughed. "Yeah, I guess."

"I knew it!" Hayner got up from his seat, fist pumping the air. "Wait until Tidus hears about this. He's going to blow his top off."

"Tidus?" Sora asked, fidgeting the the hem of his school cardigan.

"Don't ask," Roxas warned. "It's a long story."

"O-Okay."

"So, Sora. What made you move here?" Pence asked. "I mean, this place must be a drag compared to Hollow Bastion."

"I just thought that maybe it would be better to finish my studies here," Sora replied. "It's quiet unlike Hollow Bastion."

"So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how cute?" Tidus asked, shoving a french fry in his mouth.

"Dude, what?" Riku and his friends usually took up a spot in the cafeteria. However, Selphie recommended eating outside today because it was a nice day and totally _not_ because they were stalking the new kid.

"Shut up, Tidus," Kairi rolled her eyes, hurling a fry at Tidus's face.

"Hey!" Tidus shouted. "Watch the face!"

The group sighed as they watched Tidus and Kairi throw fries at each other but they also weren't surprised. They would be more surprised if the annual "lunch time french fry fight" didn't happen. Riku looked over at Sora who was laughing with his new group of friends. Sora, feeling a pair of eye on him, looked over towards Riku, waving at him. Riku lifted a hand and waved back at him.

"Do you ever think how weird it would look if we didn't have nipples?" Tidus asked, checking his chest out on the mirror of his gym locker.

"Tidus, C'mon dude," Riku groaned, fed up with how weird his friend was. Tidus has always been weird but he got even weirder during gym class. He popped open his locker, taking off his shirt rummaging through his locker for his gym shirt. His eyes lit up as he found his shirt - His celebration cut short as Tidus punched him on the ribs. "Dude, what the fuck?"

"New kid. 3 o'clock," Tidus coughed, as if it wasn't any less obvious he was talking about Sora.

"Was it really necessary to punch me?" Riku asked, putting on his gym shirt. Tidus shrugged, closing his locker and grabbed Riku by the shoulders.

"Go get 'em, tiger," Tidus winked.

"Wait,wha-." Riku was cut off and Tidus sun him around and shoved him in the direction of Sora who was struggling to open his locker. Riku grabbed onto the lockers, stopping himself before he collided into Sora. "Hey," he squeaked.

Sora looked up at him in confusion. "Um, hi," he paused. "Stranger?"

Riku almost slapped himself on the face. "Sorry, I'm Riku," he introduced.

"Sora," he replied. "Nice to meet you, Riku. Sorry for asking so suddenly but you wouldn't know how to open this locker would you?"

"Oh, yeah, these lockers are stubborn," Riku chuckled. "Here." He hit the locker near the lock, making a loud 'bang' before the locker creaked open.

"Thanks!" Sora smiled. "I was starting to think the lady at the office screwed me over and gave me the wrong combination." Sora happily shoved in his stuff, closing the locker after.

"So, you're the new kid everyone's talking about?" Riku asked.

"I'm _that_ famous, huh?"

"Unfortunately," Riku chuckled. "So, uh...we're playing volleyball today. You have a team yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Want to join my friends and I, then?""

Sora flashed a smile and nodded. "Sure!"

Riku introduced Sora to Tidus and the rest of their teammates for the volleyball game. The gym was split up into two volleyball games and Riku's team was up against Seifer's. Tidus shoved his nose in the air in an attempt to taunt the blonde and Seifer looked at him like he was an idiot. Tidus and Seifer have a bad history. Well...it was more like Tidus hated Seifer but Seifer didn't even know who Tidus was. With the blow of the teachers whistle, the game started. Tidus served the ball and Rai set it back. The ball was passed back and forth a few more times before they heard Sora yell 'mine!' as the ball made it's way to their side of the court. Sora ran towards the ball, jumped up and spiked it back. They watched in disbelief as the ball made a loud bang as it hit the floor on the other side.

"Holy shit, dude!" Tidus yelled, running up to Sora and hitting hitting him on the shoulder. "You never told us you knew how to do that."

Sora laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, um...I was in a few sports teams back in Hollow Bastion. One of them was volleyball."

Tidus swung an arm over his shoulder. "You're going to fit into this school just fine."

* * *

 **Sorry guys! I actually kind of lost inspiration for this chapter v-v I didn't intend on two chapters focusing on Sora's first day at his new school. I've been pretty busy with finals and stuff and my mental health hasn't been great so forgive me for not updating sooner. I'll do my best to my the next chapter better! Sorry again and don't forget to review!**


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